The road to 55 - baby steps

I picked up another one of the basic 55 plus a few extras.

I bought Buzz Bombers CIB for $18, and Q*bert for $15, with $10 shipping.

I got a Zaxxon for $30 + $32 in shipping.

 

It also included a Mousetrap, but it does not seem to load.  So I still need to get a cart and the overlays,  

 

I still consider it a fair price for the Zaxxon, so I'm good with it.

This now puts me at 50 out of the 55.

 

I also got some Colecovision carts - Front Line, Gorf, Smurf Rescue in Gargamel's Castle, Tarzan, and Time Pilot - for $42.  Now I really have to clear the power switch on it.    

Intellivision 2025 - end of year overview

 The Intellivison Club games that I ordered back in 2023 finally showed up back in January.  Being so delayed, it kind of knocked back my momentum to complete the original 55.  I had only gotten a few games in 2024, and a few more in 2025.  I haven’t even gotten rid of the duplicate games that I have acquired in lots yet.

 

I was very happy with being able to play Time Pilot on the Intellivison.  It is one of my favorite arcade games, and it has been very well translated to the platform.  It was the reason that I bought the Club set.  Grail of the Gods is also fun, but I have not put in as much time on it.  I have not tried the Antarctic Tales: Enhanced Edition.

 

As well, on the Intellivision part of the AtariAge board, I played in the High Score Club for 2025.  Basically, they list a new game every few weeks, and you send in screen shots of your high scores.  It gave me a reason to play a bunch of games again.  Even though I don’t have all the games, and am certainly not the best at the ones I do have, I earned enough in participation points to be in the top 10 for the season.

 

I’ve ordered the first new Intellivision game by Atari – Akalabeth: World of Doom.  I received my shipping notice but it hasn’t arrived yet.  I was a big Ultima fan on the Apple – for both Ultima III and Ultima IV.  I am very excited to see how it plays on the Intellivision. 

 

Even though the Amica relaunch of the Intellivision games did not pan out, another retro relaunch has been announced.  The Sprint has 45 games preloaded on it and connects to the TV through an HDMI cable.  It also has disc controllers similar in design to the original ones, but wireless.

I did not order one yet, but it seems like some people are already getting their units.  Some people are upset that it does not have a slot to be able to play old cartridges, as well as the new homebrews, but it does has usb connections to allow you to load more games to play.

 

I am still missing 6 of the original 55 games.  I am missing Shark Shark, Bump ‘n’ Jump, Buzz Bomber, Kool Aid Man, Motocross, and Pinball.  Only Bump 'n' Jump and Kool Aid Man are not on the Flashback.  I am also missing 2 of the games from 1982 from other companies – Mousetrap from Coleco, and Dragonfire from Imagic.  I would like to get these 8 games by the end of next year.  I might also get some of the other games from 1983 from other companies.  I am not sure how many of the remaining 63 games needed to complete the original 125 I would chase down as some are quite expensive, and the 6 Aquarius games would need the computer keyboard expansion to be able to play.  I might try to get some more of the 96 games up to 1983.  I would only need another 26 games after the 8 I am actively chasing, but even a few of those are very pricey.

Second Generation Video Games consoles – there is another

  

The first generation of video game consoles included the Coleco Telstar, the Atari Home Pong , and the Odyssey series.  They were mostly variations on Pong-like games, some with overlays for the TV, but they also included some tank games.

 

The first of the second generation consoles was the obscure Fairchild Channel 4.  It came out in 1976 and was discontinued in 1983.  It came with two games preloaded and had another 26 games available for it.  It had a unique controller with a triangular 8-way joystick / rotary dial and action button.  It sold the least of the second generations, with about 350,000 units.

 

The Atari VCS (later Atari 2600) system came out next in 1977 and wasn’t discontinued until 1992.  It ended up with between 470 and 500 games.  It had  paddles, and an 8-way joystick with an action button.  It was the clear winner of the console wars, with about 30 million units sold, more than twice as much as all the other second generation systems combined. 

 

The Odyssey 2 came out in 1978 and was discontinued by 1984. It had a full keyboard, an 8-way non-centering joystick with one action button, and about 50 games.  It sold a respectable 2 million units and was clearly fourth of the top four systems.

 

The Intellivision came out in 1979 and did not get discontinued until 1991.  There were 129 games released for it originally.  The controllers included  a 12 button keypad, 4 buttons, and a 16 direction disc.  Because it changed hands between Matell Electronics and INTV, the numbers are a bit tricky, but it is figured to have sold between 3 to 5 million units. 

 

The Colecovision did not come out until 1982 and it was discontinued in 1985.  It also had about 137 games released for it.  The standard controllers were a full keypad, with two action buttons and a stubby joystick.  The company claimed about 6 million units were sold, but it is believed to be closer to 2-3 million units.

 

There was also a Vectrex system that came out in 1982 and was discontinued in 1984.  It included a built-in monitor, and only had about 28 vector style games with screen overlays.   It had a controller with a small 8-direction joystick, and 4 action buttons.   It only managed to sell between 500 to 600 thousand units.

 

My Road to 55 - the first half of 2025

 There is a local place that has a fair amount of classic video games including a fair sized Intellivision section.

I popped in and got Tron:Solar Sailor for $50, and ABPA Backgammon with the top number for $15  This completes the last of the original Intellivoice games I needed.

 

I found a copy of Venture by Coleco from ebay for $15 plus $22 shipping.  I had played this on the Colecovision back in the day.  This means that I now have 4 of the 8 Coleco games.  I just need Mouse Trap, Donkey Kong Jr, Turbo, and Zaxxon.  This is the first one of the other company titles that I am halfway to completing.

 

I also picked up The Electric Company Math Fun from ebay for $9 plus $34 shipping.  This included a color manual, and has a top number on the box as well.  There were two versions of this game, one where you entered the answers starting from the left, and a later version where you start from the right.  This is the left version.  This was the last one that I needed from 1979.  I now have all the ones from 1979 to 1981.  I now would now need 8 to complete the original 19 with top numbers.

 

 

Running Total:

Original 55 Mattel Electronics:  49/55

1979 – complete

1980 – complete

1981 – complete

1982 – missing Shark! Shark!

1983 – missing Bump ‘n’ Jump, Buzz Bombers, Kool-Aid Man, Motocross, and Pinball.

 

Original 19 top numbers missing – Armor Battle, NBA Basketball, NFL Football, Auto Racing, PGA Golf, Space Battle, Tennis, The Electric Company Word Fun.

I’m not sure how much effort I’ll put into these beyond getting the red box Space Battle, and the Auto Racing with the alternate steering. 

So far I have spent $270 plus $134 in shipping to help complete this.  Although some of that includes lots which included some Imagic games.

 

 

Next 41 – have 12

Activision (7): have Pitfall!

Atari (3): have Pac-Man cartridge only

Coleco (8): have Carnival, Donkey Kong, Lady Bug, and Venture

Imagic (14): have Atlantis, Beauty & the Beast, Demon Attack, Microsurgeon, and Swords & Serpents

Interphase Technologies Ltd (2); missing Blockade Runner, and Sewer Sam

Parker Brothers (6): have Frogger

Sega (1): missing Congo  Bongo

 

I am especially interested in chasing down the 3 games that I need to complete the 10 games released in 1982 – Mouse Trap, Dragon Fire, and Tropical Thunder.

In addition to the Beauty & the Beast and Demon Attack that were include in the lots above, I spent another $74 plus $86 in shipping to get these games.

 

 

From the remaining 29, I don’t have any at all.  I’m not sure I’ll get the ESC games, as I’m pretty sure I may not get the ESC module to run them.

INTV (21): I have none

Dextel Ltd (2): missing Championship Tennis, and World Cup Soccer

ESC (6): I have none

 

I’ll look at getting the ones that aren’t on the Flashback – Commando, Dig Dug, Diner, Mountain Madness: Super Pro Volleyball, and Pole Position.  Tripple Challenge is not on the Flashback, but the three games included (Backgammon, Chess, and Checkers) are.  Tower of Doom is on the Flashback but the file is corrupted, so I will probably get that one.

I haven’t spent anything on this group.  Yet.

 

In addition to what I started with, I have spent a total of $344 on this collection so far, plus another $210 in shipping charges.  Plus the $30 that I spent on a working Intellivision.

My Road to 55 - small steps in 2024

 In 2024, I got Imagic Swords & Serpents for <53 total> from ebay.

 

I picked up some overlays and rules for another <31 total> from ebay.  This covered the rest of the missing overlays I needed, as well as giving a nicer copy of the Boxing rulebook.

 

I ended the year by picking up Roulette from ebay for <51 total>.  This finished off the last one I needed for the 1980 set.  It also had a top number, and a full color manual.

 

I finished the year with 46 of the original 55 as well as 11 of the next 41.  I don’t have any of the 29 from Dextell, INTV, or ESC.

Of the original 55, I was missing ABPA Backgammon, and The Electric Company Math Fun from 1979. Shark! Shark! from 1982, and Bump ‘n’ Jump, Buzz Bombers, Kool-Aid Man, Motocross, Pinball, and Tron: Solar Sailor from 1983.  I had 9 of the 19 top number games.

My Road to 55 - good first steps

 After all the delving into the old games, I played some on the Intellivision Flashback.  It has 60 games built in from both Mattel Electronic as well as INTV.  They also have some of the unreleased games.  The console itself is a bit smaller but the controllers are the same as on the original system. 

 

I ordered a new RF connection to be able to play the old consoles.  This ended up costing about $~15 from ebay.  When it came and I went to hook it up, I was gutted to see that our original Intellivision was open, missing four of the six screws that hold it together.  I was unable to get it to work. I was able to find another one locally for $30 which does seem to work fine except for the reset button, which is intermittent.

 

When I first decided to go back and fill in the gaps on the Intellivision collection, I started checking local places as well as online on ebay and facebook marketpace for lots.  Starting with 28 cartridges, or slightly over half of the original 55, I had a way to go. 

I also had 4 of the next 41.  I had Pitfall, Carnival, Ladybug, and Donkey Kong.

 

My first find was from facebook marketplace for $80.  It included NBA Basketball, NASL Soccer, The Electric Company Word Fun, Boxing, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Royal Dealer, Sub Hunt, AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin, Mission X, and B-17 Bomber (with a piece missing on the cover).  It also had Beauty & the Beast, and Demon Attack from Imagic.

It also included the ‘first 19’ copies of Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack, as well as The Electric Company Word Fun.

 

 

I was able to find a copy of Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man on ebay for $40 (plus $25 shipping).  It is in good condition and even includes the comic.

 

 

At a local flea market, I was able to get some more games beyond the original 55.  I got Imagic’s Atlantis, and Parker Brothers’ Frogger for $10 each.

 

 

I also won a lot on ebay for $55 (plus another $45 in shipping).  This included Checkers, Horse Racing, NHL Hockey, PGA Golf, Frog Bog, and Loco-Motion.  It also included the ‘first 19’ copies of Checkers, Horse Racing, Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack, Major League Baseball, NASL Soccer, NSL Hockey, and Sea Battle.

 

 

From a local store, I picked up the cartridge only of Atarisoft’s Pac-Man for $10.  While I will try to get a complete copy later, I could not pass it up for that price.  I was able to pass up the cartridge only copies of Sewer Sam and Blockade Runner for $20 each.

 

 

In 2023 I preordered some of the newer games.  It was a bit pricy, but it contained Time Pilot, which was one of my favorite arcade games.  This ended up taking about a year and a half to fulfill though, and cost me some momentum towards the 55.

Intellivision - My Road to 55 - the start

 

Around the time that I turned 55 a few years ago, my parents had cleaned out their basement and passed along our Intellivision games.

I had 28 games by Intellivision directly and 4 extra ones by other companies.  Two of the boxes (Space Armada and Triple Action) were in really rough shape.  The rest of them seemed okay.  I was only missing two of the overlays (1 for Major League Baseball, and 1 for Triple Action).

 

Since Intellivision had produced 55 games and I already had over half of them, I thought it might be fun to see about picking up the remainder to complete the original set.  I have the Intellivision Flashback which is a retro console that emulates a lot of the original Mattel Electronics and INTV games for the Intellivision.  It doesn’t have a lot of the licensed games though, so that was another push to get the remaining ones.

 

Starting out, I had Las Vegas Poker and Blackjack which came with the original console.  We also picked up Armor Battle, Major League Baseball, and NFL Football from the 1979 set of 8.  We also got Auto Racing, Sea Battle, Space Battle, Tennis, and the US Ski Team Skiing from the 11 games that came out in 1980.

These original 19 games originally came out with numbers on the top of the box, and many of them also came with full color manuals, both  of which are subsets of collecting the games in addition to just having the later editions that came with the two-color manuals (black plus another) and did not have the top box numbers.

 

We had 6 of the 7 games from 1981 – Astrsmash, PBA Bowling, SNAFU, Space Armada, Star Strike, and Triple Action.    One of the things that Mattel did with their boxes was that they had different colors for their ‘networks’ of games.  Blue was for Sports, Green was for Gaming, Purple was for Strategy, and Red was for Action.  They added Indigo for their Space games but had released Space Battle and Space Armada as Red originally, and then later as Indigo.

 

1982 was the largest year by Mattel Electronics.  The Intellivision II came out, which shipped with Lock ‘n Chase in Canada, and later with Burger Time in the United States.  They released 17 games and we got 12 of them – Lock ‘n Chase, Night Stalker, Reversi, Sharp Shot, Space Hawk, Tron: Deadly Discs, Tron: Maze-a-Tron, USCF Chess, Utopia, Bomb Squad, Space Spartans.  They also released the Intellivoice module, and three of the games release were in the Cream boxes for the Intellivoice Network.

In 1982, other companies started making games for the Intellivision as well.  Coleco released 3 games, and Imagic released 7.  We got Carnival, and Donkey Kong.

 

Of the 12 games that came out in 1983, we only got two of them.  Which is unfortunate as five of the games from this year do not appear on the Flashback.

We did get Vectron, and Burger Time, which are probably the worst and best games for the year.  This year they also became quite scattered in their Network colors.  Other companies released another 31 games of which I only got Lady Bug, and Pitfall!.  Mattel Electronics also put out 6 cartridge games for the ECS expansion, which allowed you to add a keyboard, and even a musical keyboard to your system.

 

At the end of 1983 there was the “crash”, with a glut of unsold games pulling down the majority of the video game consoles.  The Nintendo NES was released in 1985 and broadly in 1986.  The Apple II line of computers was already out since 1977, and the Apple IIc was released in 1984.  The Vic-20 had come out in 1980, and the Commodore 64 was released in 1982.  The IBM PC Jr came out in 1984.  

 

Then INTV got the assets for the Intellivision from Mattel Electronics and started releasing more games, mostly by mail order.  They originally game in bags with just the cartridge and manual, but later were released with boxes, although only the Baseball game came with overlays.  From 1985 through 1989 they released another 21 games, as well as rereleasing some of the games from other companies under their own line of boxes.

 

Then the line went quiet, until 2001 when a homebrew version of Tetris came out on a cartridge as 4-Tris.  Since then, there have been more games release since 2000 than were released before 2000.  This can make collecting the entire set a bit tricky.  As well, Sears/CBS released a bunch of the Mattel Electronics games under their line with variant covers.

 

Because of this history, collecting the entire set is a matter of deciding what you consider a complete set.  Mattel Electronics released 55 games for the system, plus another 6 for the ECS (Entertainment Computer System) keyboard expansion.  There were another 41 games released by 1983 by other companies like Activision (7), Atarisoft (3), Coleco (8), Imagic (14), Interphase Technology (2), Parker Brothers (6), and Sega (1). 

Dextell Ltd released 2 games in 1986.  And INTV released another 21 games between 1985 and 1989.  They also released some older games by other companies in INTV packaging.

This gives you a bit of a choice to what you want for a ‘complete’ collection.  You can collect the original 19 games – as noted by the number on top of the boxes.  You can collect the entire 55 Mattel Electronics games.  You can collect some, or all, of the games by other companies.  You can skip the ECS games or even the INTV games, which allows a smaller collection.  Or you can go for the entire 125, or even beyond with the newer releases.

 

For me, I set the original Mattel 55 as a goal.  With perhaps the original 19 as a secondary goal.  Then I will need to re-evaluate how deep into this rabbit hole I am willing to go.

Collecting Intellivision - road to 55

 

Collection for older game systems is a bit of an odd hobby.  Unlike the 677 games for the NES, the Intellivision only had 125 Games release for it before 2000.  There have been some new releases by the homebrew community since then, starting with 4-TRIS – a Tetris clone which came out in 2001.  This can make collecting the entire set a bit tricky.

Because of the history, collecting the entire set is a matter of deciding what you consider a complete set.  Mattel Electronics released 55 games for the system, plus another 6 for the ECS (Entertainment Computer System) keyboard expansion.  There were another 41 games released by 1983 other companies like Activision (7), Atarisoft (3), Coleco (8), Imagic (14), Interphase Technology (2), Parker Brothers (6), and Sega (1). 

Dextell Ltd released 2 games in 1986.  And INTV released another 21 games between 1985 and 1989.  They also released some older games by other companies in INTV packaging.

This gives you a bit of a choice to what you want for a ‘complete’ collection.  You can collect the original 19 games – as noted by the number on top of the boxes.  You can collect the entire 55 Mattel Electronics games.  You can collect some, or all, of the games by other companies.  You can skip the ECS games or even the INTV games, which allows a smaller collection.  Or you can go for the entire 125 – or even 124 since the Super Spiker! Game is really hard to collect. 

 

Personally, I’m interested in getting the remaining 9 I need for the original 19.  I would also get Boxing to complete the games from 1981.  Depending on what lots I get which have other games, I would probably get the 6 I need to complete the 1982 set as well.

At that point I would have 10 remaining from the 1983 set.  Three of these are on the Flashback system, but I still might try to get them to complete the official 55.  If I am able to complete that, I might try to get the Atarisoft, Coleco, and Parker Brothers games.

I might get a few of the Imagic ones, as well as the rest of the Activision games, again depending on what I had gotten in lots to that point.  I have Pitfall! Already, and would only be interested in Happy Trails from Activision, and Microsurgeon and Beauty & The Beast from Imagic. 

I would only chase down the one Sega game, Congo Bongo, if I could get it for a reasonable price.  Being a solitary game from that company, it is easy to skip.  The same is true for the two games from Dextell.  Being that they were from 1986, it is easy to cut the collection off at 1983.     

For the non-Mattel games, you also have to decide on if you want to collect just the cartridges, or if you are trying to get the games with the boxes, rules, and overlays.  Unlike for Atari or Coleco, where the boxes were not as important and the games were simpler, because of needing a place to keep the instructions and overlays, most people who had Intellivision games kept the original boxes.  However, some games did not come with overlays originally.

 

Intellivision Memories - part 2

1982 was another big year, with 17 new games coming out, of which we got at least 12 of them.  The Intellivision II also came out, which shipped with Lock ‘n Chase up here in Canada, and Burger Time in States.  The Intellivoice, which had been advertised for the last few years came out, and we got one as well.

I am not sure if we got Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  I remember playing a fair amount, but do not seem to have the box for it.  We did not get Frog Bog, Shark! Shark!, Sub Hunt, or Royal Dealer.  These are all available on the Flashback.  I did play a fair amount of Shark! Shark! Back in the day, and would have played a lot of the Royal Dealer, which allowed you to play Crazy Eights, Gin, and Gin Rummy against a computer.

Lock ‘n Chase was based off of the arcade game, which was based off of Pac Man, and we played it a fair amount.  Night Stalker was a maze game, and we played it a lot as well.  Sharp Shot was aimed at a younger crowd and had 4 simple games on it – Football passing, Space Gunner, Submarine, and Maze Shoot.  I played this one quite a bit with the younger siblings.  While we did not get the arcade version of Tron for the Intellivision, we did get the two Tron games that they did release – Deadly Discs, and Maze-a-Tron.  Of the two, I played Maze-a-Tron more.  Space Hawk did not get played a lot.  I played a lot of Reversi, and was able to beat it regularly.  USCF Chess should have been played a lot more than we did but, if you played at the higher levels, the computer took too long to calculate its move.  I did like Utopia, and would have played much more if I could find an opponent to play against more often.  We did get all three games available for the Intellivoice, but can not find the box for Bomb Squad.  I played Bomb Squad the most of the three, followed by B-17 Bomber, and the least of Space Spartans.

 

Of the 12 games that came out in 1983, we only got two of them.  Which is unfortunate as most of the games from this year do not appear on the Flashback.

We did not get Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin, Bump ‘n’ Jump, Buzz Bombers, Kool-Aid Man, Loco-Motion, Mission X, Motocross, Pinball, or the Intellivoice game Tron: Solar Sailor.  Of these, I would have played the AD&D, and the Loco-Motion the most, and Bump ‘n’ Jump was a game I played in the arcade a bit.

We did get Vectron, which I did not play a lot, and Burger Time, which I played a lot in the arcade and quite a bit at home.

 

We did not get a lot of games by other manufacturers.  I have only 4 cartridges in the box.  Pitfall from Activison was played a lot.  We also have three from Coleco – Carnival, Donkey Kong, and Lady Bug.  Of those three, we only played the Carnival a bit, while we played more of the Donkey Kong.  I played the most of Ladybug, which I had first been introduced to on my friend’s Colecovision.

Of all of the rest of the games that came out by other companies, the only ones that I should have gotten was Donkey Kong Jr from Coleco, and Pac-Man from Atarisoft.  We didn’t get the Pac Man as we had played their version on the Atari 2600 and it was so terrible that we did not get their version for the Intellivision which actually looked pretty close to the arcade.

 

Intellivision memories - part 1

 When we got an Intellivision in 1980, there were only 8 games out for it.  In addition to the Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack that came with the system, we bought an extra 3 games to ensure we had a variety to play.  We never did pick up the remaining 4 games, but I might grab them if I get a chance, just to complete the original collection.

We did not get NBA Basketball, ABPA Backgammon, Checkers, or The Electric Company Math Fun.  I probably would have played the Backgammon the most of these.  Versions of all of these are available on the Flashback, including the Super Pro version of Basketball which allows you to play against the computer.

The other ones from this year we did get were Major League Baseball, NFL Football, and Armor Battle.  We did play Football a bit, but you needed the playbooks to really make it work.  The Armor Battle was played a bit more, and we really played the Baseball a fair amount.  At least until I got really good at it, and very high scoring runaway games became the norm.  I also played a lot of the Poker & Blackjack, since you were able to play that solo.

 

Eleven games came out in 1980.  We ended up getting five of them.  We did not get the NASL Soccer, NHL Hockey, or PGA Golf but all of these are now on the Flashback with the Super Pro versions which allow single player against the computer.   Not wanting to promote gambling, we also did not get the Horse Racing, or the Las Vegas Roulette, both of which are on the Flashback.  The Electric Company Word Fun was considered too young, so we also passed on that, and it also appears on the Flashback.

We did get a few of the Sports games.  We did get Auto Racing which we played a lot.  We got the Tennis, and US Ski Team Skiing, both of which we played a little.  The Skiing did not make it to the Flashback.  We did get Sea Battle which we also played a bit, but preferred Armor Battle to it.  We also got the first game under the Space category, Space Battle.  This one I played a lot of until the following year when the new games came out, but even then, it remained in rotation.

 

Of the seven games that came out in 1981, we got all of them except for the Boxing, which also appears on the Flashback.

We played the PBA Bowling a surprising amount.  We played Snafu a lot, being very similar to the Tron light cycles.  Triple Action had three simple mini games in it and got a lot of play as it had an airplane combat, a tank combat, and a racing game.  Astrosmash got played the most of the Space games, and I got very good at it, able to roll through all the backgrounds.  Space Armada was a Space Invaders clone, and we played it a fair amount.  Star Strike was based off the Star Wars trench run but wasn’t great.

The original big three - video game systems

 When they cleaned out their basement, my parents passed along the Intellivision and cartridges.  I looked through them to see what I had.  I might be missing a few, but I seem to have 28 original Intellivision cartridges and 4 extra ones by other companies.  Only two of the boxes (Space Armada and Triple Action) were in really rough shape.  The rest of them seemed okay.  I was only missing two of the overlays (1 for Major League Baseball, and 1 for Triple Action).  

In another box was a silver Atari 2600, and a Colecovision with one of the controllers opened up and the wires cut.  They said that they got these much later when they helped someone move.  I never had these as a youth.

Of the three systems, the Atari came out first, in 1977.  It had a joystick and you could also get paddles.  My cousins had one, but I was never impressed with the quality of the games.  It was a lot of people’s first game system so it usually ranks high but it was the lowest of the three to me.  People usually give it higher marks as it had the most games, but both the Colecovision and even the Intellivision had emulators that would allow you to play Atari games on their systems.  The Atari was finally discontinued in 1992.

The Intellivision came out in 1979.  The graphics were miles ahead of the Atari.  It also had some solid sports games for the day.  Their controllers has a keypad as well as a disc instead of a joystick.  People either loved or hated the disc; I loved it.  This is the system that I pushed hard to get, and played deep into the 80s, even after we had upgraded to the Nintendo Entertainment System.  It was discontinued in 1984 but it continued under different labels until 1990 as INTV.

The Colecovision did not come out until 1982.  Of the three, it had the best graphics, with any games looking identical to their arcade versions.  It also had, what I consider the worst controllers.  They had a keypad like the Intellivision but the controller was a bit thicker and did not fit the hand as comfortably.  It did have a stubby joystick with a flat top.  It did have a lot of expansions available, with a normal joystick and buttons, a steering wheel and pedal, a roller controller (track ball), and a super awkward super controller with a nice joystick.  One of my friends had a Colecovision so I was able to try it. It was discontinued in 1985